The low horizon and broadly painted sky in this picture testify to Dupré’s interest in recent English art, especially the landscapes of John Constable and the late Richard Parkes Bonington. This work fits the description of an "expansive and true composition" recently painted "on the spot" in the Limousin region of central France, which a critic admired at the Parisian gallery Susse Frères in the summer of 1836. Its first owner was Paul Casimir Périer (1812–1897), an early supporter of Dupré as well as his colleagues Théodore Rousseau and Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps.

"Variétés." L'Artiste 12 ([summer] 1836), p. 24, writes, "M. Jules Dupré, infatigable artiste, est revenu ces jours-ci à Paris, apportant du fond du Limousin un tableau peint sur les lieux. C'est une scène d'animaux exécutée de main de maître, composition large et vraie. Tel est le sentiment de toutes les personnes qui vont voir cet ouvrage dans les magasins de Susse" (M. Jules Dupré, an indefatigable artist, has returned to Paris in the past few days, bringing with him from deep in the Limousin region a picture painted on the spot. It’s a scene of animals executed by the hand of a master, an expansive and true composition. Such is the feeling of all those who have seen this work in the rooms of Susse.) [probably this work].

Marie-Madeleine Aubrun. Jules Dupré, 1811–1889: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, dessiné et gravé. Paris, 1974, pp. 17, 59–60, no. 84, ill. p. 76, as "Vaches traversant un gué"; notes that it was painted for Casimir Périer, erroneously identified as the grandfather of the future president of France [Périer was the uncle of the future president; see the catalogue of the 1945 Logan sale which states that it was painted for Périer; see Ex-Colls]; lists etchings by Louis Marvy and Collignon and a lithograph by Lafage after this painting; catalogues an undated replica of this painting (no. 84A; private collection).